Three dead, thousands evacuated as storms strike China

Heavy rain has descended upon the vast southern province of Guangdong inrecent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that statemedia said could be of the sort only "seen around once a century".
"The three deaths were reported in Zhaoqing City. They were trapped due tothe rainfall and were found to have died at the site," state broadcasterXinhua reported, citing local authorities.
Eleven others remain missing as search and rescue efforts in the areacontinue to be carried out, said Xinhua.
China is no stranger to extreme weather but recent years have seen thecountry whiplashed by severe floods, grinding droughts and record heat.
More than 53,000 people have been relocated across Guangdong, Xinhua added.
Of those, more than 45,000 were evacuated from the northern city of Qingyuan,which straddles the banks of the Bei River, a tributary in the wider PearlRiver Delta, state media reported Sunday.
Heavy rain is expected to continue on Monday, with meteorological authoritiesforecasting "thunderstorms and strong winds in Guangdong's coastal waters" --a stretch of sea bordering major cities including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Neighbouring provinces, including parts of Fujian, Guizhou and Guangxi, willalso be affected by "short-term heavy rainfall", the National MeteorologicalCentre said.
"It is expected that the main impact period of strong convection will lastfrom daytime until night," it added.
Authorities on Monday issued a yellow alert for rainstorms -- the second-lowest in its four-tier system -- with high levels of precipitation expectedto continue across large swathes of the country.
Guangdong province is China's densely populated manufacturing heartland, hometo around 127 million people.
In the town of Jiangwan, six people were injured and a number were trapped inlandslides caused by heavy rain on Sunday, state media reported.
Photographs published by state broadcaster CCTV showed waterfront homesdestroyed by a wall of brown mud, and people sheltering in a soaked publicsports court.
CCTV reported Sunday that floods as high as 5.8 metres (19 feet) above thewarning limit would strike in Pearl River tributaries on Monday morning.
Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weatherevents more frequent and intense, and China is the world's biggest emitter, reports BSS.